This week for a graduate course, I had to write a lesson plan using the 5 E's Strategy. The 5 E's for those who happen upon this blog who are not in the same course, are:
Engage – hook
Explore – experiment
Explain – introduce new material
Elaborate – real world connections
Evaluate – assessment
I thought that taking the lesson apart and looking at them with these 5 E's in mind was helpful in making sure that I planned a more engaging lesson that provided opportunities for my students to explore and make connections to the real world.
We are required to turn in lesson plans on a weekly basis to our assistant principal. On them, we are required to include strategies for: Instruction, Guided Practice, Independent Practice, and Assessment. These are similar to the 5 E's.
At first I was going to say that this procedure took much longer than my normal lesson planning does, but if I just look at the 5 E's part of the lesson plan template, it did not take any more time. The entire process required to complete the entire template took a long time. This is still a new format, and I am sure it would go faster as I used it more.
One note I found while researching the standards addressed in this lesson was on the Benchmarks Online (Project 2061) website, it said that students in grades 6-8 “cannot be expected to become knowledgeable about details of atomic structure or bonding” (www.project2061.org). This is at odds with what the Indiana State Standards say that I am supposed to teach. We spent weeks on atoms and the periodic table and are currently struggling through chemical reactions, including bonding. Who is right?
Hi Georgianna,
ReplyDeleteI agree that this new lesson format was a bit time consuming. My school does not require us to submit lesson plans. However, we do usually plan (very skeletal though) as a grade level curriculum group. Many of us do the same or similar activites with each unit. This often leads to collaboration of activities we design on our own.
It's funny that you mentioned the standards about the atomic structure and bonding. I found on the NSES standards site that students do not learn about cells until grades 9-12. We spend almost an entire 9 weeks on cells and cell structure in 7th grade in Georgia. Our high stakes test also requires students to have a broad knowledge base on cells (must pass this to go to 8th grade!). Maybe our states are just ahead of the game :-)
Thanks for sharing,
Regan
In Indiana cells are studied some in 5th grade and then more in depth in 7th grade. THey have always been inclued at the beginning of the text books. This is the first year for new books written to be aligned with the new science standards. Cells are now at the end of the book. The 7th grade teacher is hoping that her students get cells more easily, because it is later in the year.
DeleteGeorgianna and Regan,
ReplyDeleteThis very discrepancy is why I lean more and more toward the idea of a national curriculum. I also just completed cell biology with my 7th grade students. My district guidelines had me skip the chapters on human evolution and DNA. I groaned at the exclusion of human evolution (I did teach about evolution as it related to other organisms), but I was glad I didn't have to teach DNA. It is pretty complicated for 7th grade, in my opinion.
Eileen
I was excited to hear that we were adopting the Common Core Standards, but was disappointed to find out so far only math and language arts were done. I think having the same standards will be nice and less confusing for all.
DeleteHI Georgianna,
ReplyDeleteI agree the 5-E template on its own is not very hard to complete, it was the additional parts of the template that added to the time factor. Additionally, I also had trouble aligning my state standards (also Georgia) with those of the NSES, maybe we are ahead of the game.
And I, too, agree that the 5E is a bit cumbersome with the same reasons you all stated. Can you imagine completing this lesson plan for every lesson? It sounds like most of you teach Middle School/Junior High, but I teach 4th grade, so writing each day's 4-5 subjects' lessons using this 5E extensive outline would make me quit my job in a week.
ReplyDeleteJanie
As I worked on the assignment, I kept thinking, "what if I hasd to do this on every lesson? What about elementary teachers?" I have been one. I cannot imagine finding the time to plan like this for everyday every subject. We would get faster, but still.
Delete